Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Solar minimum for 2018 - 2020 could be unprecedented in modern astronomy

SOTT | May 23, 2009

© David Hathaway/NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center
The story thus far... and the curious drama that is solar cycle #24.
Have you been keeping an eye on Sol lately? One of the top astronomy stories for 2018 may be what's not happening, and how inactive our host star has become.

The strange tale of Solar Cycle #24 is ending with an expected whimper: as of May 8th, the Earthward face of the Sun had been spotless for 73 out of 128 days thus far for 2018, or more than 57% of the time. This wasn't entirely unexpected, as the solar minimum between solar cycle #23 and #24 saw 260 spotless days in 2009 - the most recorded in a single year since 1913.

Cycle #24 got off to a late and sputtering start, and though it produced some whopper sunspots reminiscent of the Sol we knew and loved on 20th century cycles past, it was a chronic under-performer overall. Mid-2018 may see the end of cycle #24 and the start of Cycle #25... or will it?

One nice surprise during Cycle #24 was the appearance of massive sunspot AR 2192, which popped up just in time for the partial solar eclipse of October 23rd, 2014. Several times the size of the Earth, the spot complex was actually the largest seen in a quarter century. But just as "one swallow does not a Summer make," one large sunspot group couldn't save Solar Cycle #24.

 The Sun goes through an 11-year sunspot cycle, marked by the appearance of new spots at mid- solar latitudes, which then slowly progress to make subsequent appearances closer towards the solar equator, in a pattern governed by what's known as Spörer's Law. The hallmark of a new solar cycle is the appearance of those high latitude spots. The Sun actually flips overall polarity every cycle, so a proper Hale Cycle for the Sun is actually 11 x 2 = 22 years long.

Read more at SOTT..

 

Monday, March 9, 2015

SOTT Summary February 2015 - Extreme Weather, Earth Changes, and Fireballs

SOTT Media | Mar 8, 2015


The following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during February 2015 - 'earth changes', extreme weather, meteor fireballs, and planetary upheaval.

The pattern of global deluges continued last month as flooding again hit the Balkans, Greece, Bolivia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Northwest, Australia, and East Africa. February saw 'orange' snow, 'blue' snow and 'dirty rain' as particulates from ever more erupting volcanoes and incoming meteors continue to build up in the atmosphere. It's not just conditions above ground that are changing: alarming numbers of whales, sea lions and other sea creatures continue to wash up dead or dying on beaches around the world.

February saw meteor fireballs ranging from flashes that momentarily turned night into day over New Zealand, Florida and Korea... to a long-duration bolide of comet/asteroid size that broke up over the western half of North America. There were several major train derailments in February, particularly in the U.S., where oil companies are bypassing pipeline networks to transport fracked oil. We suspect that many railway lines are deforming due to the increased seismic activity.

More loud booms were heard and felt across the U.S. in February. Although attributed to 'frost quakes', where water seeps into the ground then freezes and cracks the bedrock, these localized booms also happened in ice-free regions, suggesting that some other mechanism is causing them. Besides strong earthquakes off Japan and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an unusually strong quake in central Spain sent people running into the streets. Japan saw more snow records broken, wild weather continued to pummel the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East was again snowed under.

THE major weather event in February 2015 was the record snow and cold in the U.S. Northeast. The South and Midwest were also hit hard, but the Northeast appears to have had both its snowiest and coldest month ever, at least since since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century. Meteorologists attributed this to the meandering Polar Jet stream delivering a 'Siberian Express' of non-stop winter storms from the northern Pacific down and across the North American continent, but another factor could be super-cool air coming down from the troposphere.

The ice age cometh?

If you like this video, please share!

[...]

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

DOUBLE BARREL M-CLASS SOLAR FLARES - March 2, 2015

Solar Watcher | Mar 2, 2015

Departing active region 12290 prior to turning off the solar disk unleashed two moderate M-Class Solar Flares this evening. An M3.7 eruption at 15:28 UTC and M4.1 at 19:31 UTC. A spectacular Halo Coronal Mass Ejection followed spewing safely out into space and will not have any earth directed component due to the proximity of the blast site being at right angles or 90 degrees to the earth.


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http://www.solarwatcher.net/index.php...
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http://www.solarwatcher.net/index.php...
Website Subscription Information
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Facebook Live Quake Data
https://www.facebook.com/EarthquakeHu...
http://solarwatcher.net
Earthquake Forecasting Channel
http://youtube.com/thebarcaroller
Another Quality Solar youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/Skyywatch...
Earthquake Reporting Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/EQForecaster
Soho Website
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
Solar Soft website
http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest...
Solar Terrestrial Activity Report
http://www.solen.info/solar/
WSA-Enlil Solar Wind Prediction
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/
Helioviewer
http://www.helioviewer.org/
Quality Solar Website
http://www.solarham.com
Estimated Planetary K index information
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/k-ind...
GOES Xray Flux Data
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xra...
Sunspot Information from Solar Monitor
http://www.solarmonitor.org/
Quality Weather Website
http://www.westernpacificweather.com
Space Weather Website
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Record snowfall in Canada – Video

Ice Age Now | Mar 2, 2015 |

Roofs caving in – People trapped inside


A huge blizzard dumped over 80 cm (2½ feet) of snow on Prince Edward Island.

In New Brunswick the snow piled up in huge drifts, in some cases trapping people inside.

And in Halifax, it snowed and it rained and it froze again and now ice is encasing everything.

“It’s clear the Maritimes weather has crossed the line from difficult to dangerous.”

A stranded driver said he could barely see the end of the hood on his car.

Many Maritimers spent most of the month digging out after record snowfalls.

Both Halifax and Moncton recorded more than double the average amount of snow for the month.

Charlottetown was buried under more than seven feet of snow (222.8 cm), including nearly 90 cm in a single storm that hit PEI’s capital on February 16th.

In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, residents were digging out after snow storms dumped more than 50 cm (16 inches) in some areas that led to the closures of schools, businesses and highways.

Moncton saw the worst of the blizzard with more than 50 cm of snow, while Fredericton and Saint John received over 30 cm (12 inches).

http://globalnews.ca/news/1856489/coldest-february-on-record-in-quebec/

http://globalnews.ca/news/1833283/winter-storms-slam-maritimes-deep-freeze-continues-in-quebec-and-ontario/

Thanks to Carl B for these links

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Heavy Snowfall and Cold Wave in America Not Caused by Global Warming


Global Research | Feb 27, 2015 | Ganapathy Ponmudi

The heavy snowfalls during the months of December 2013 and January 2014 were caused by the excessive snow and ice deposits formed in the Arctic region during August 2013.

Last year, fifty states in the U.S. experienced heavy snowfalls during the months of December 2013 and January 2014. Based on the information released on the internet, I found out that the snowfall was the aftermath of the unusual formation of extensive ice deposits in the Arctic region. However, it is explained on the basis of the “Global Warming” conception.

We are told that the ice deposits on the surface of the sea in the North Polar Region melted and the resultant sea water on the surface evaporated with the heat and rose up. This affected the polar vortex, which usually circles the middle and upper troposphere and extends into stratosphere. This further altered the path of the polar vortex, which widely spread over the entire North American continent causing heavy snowfall. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2757831/Is-global-warming-causing-COLDER-winters-Melting-ice-destabilising-polar-vortex-study-claims.html

But the British Meteorological Department has found out from the records of 30,000 stations which recorded weather that during the past seventeen years, i.e. from 1997 to 2014, the world’s temperature had not risen at all. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2436710/Met-office-proof-global-warming-pause-climate-summit-confirms-global-temperature-stopped-rising.html

Hence the explanation given for the widespread snowfall in America last year, during the months of December 2013 and January 2014 on the basis of the “Global Warming” conception is totally wrong.

In the year 2007, BBC released a news item stating that a study conducted by Prof. Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski and researchers of NASA has predicted that particularly in the month of September 2013, the North Polar Region might be ice-free. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7139797.stm

But contrary to the predictions of those “Global Warming” scientists, the Arctic Region was not only not sea ice-free, but that ice had unusually formed in an area of around 5,33,000 square miles amounting to 29 percent of additional ice formation in the Arctic Region, and this was captured in the satellite images of NASA.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/And-global-COOLING-Return-Arctic-ice-cap-grows-29-year.htm

It proves that the unusual excessive formation of ice in the Arctic Region is the sole reason for the heavy snowfall in America.

There is also a possibility that this incident would recur if excessive ice is again formed in the Arctic Region. So, America, Canada and European nations may be alerted on these grounds.

Ganapathy Ponmudi is an independent scientist from Chennai, India.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Drone film of Niagara Falls frozen over

SOTT | Feb 21, 2015

The ice encasing the Niagara Falls, which has drawn in visitors from all over, isn't expected to melt entirely until May. Drone footage captures this rare and beautiful occurrence.

Fireball & sonic boom witnessed from Florida to South Carolina

Heat map of fireball sightings
(Image from AMSmeteors.org)
RT | Feb 23, 2015

Residents of the Sunshine State say they spotted a massive fireball soar through the Florida sky over the weekend, and similar reports have since surfaced from as far away as South Carolina.

According to the American Meteorological Society (AMS), 189 people have filed reports since late Saturday evening, when they saw a fireball cut through the night sky. At least 15 eyewitnesses described seeing the phenomenon accompanied by what the AMS called a "window rattling delayed boom."

It “sounded like an explosion,” a witness, who gave her name as Kasey W. from Lake City, FL, told the AMS. Another person who said she encountered the fireball, Lindsey E., also of Lake City, said her “windows and walls shook along with a loud pop and boom.”

The AMS has logged reports from supposed witnesses in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, and experts told local media that the apparent sightings seem to suggest a meteor is to blame.

“The fact that people heard sonic booms [means] it did survive down to the lower atmosphere," Robert Lunsford, a volunteer with the AMS, told Jacksonville’s WJXT. "So there's a good chance that some small fragments may have reached the ground probably about 50 miles west of Jacksonville.”

“The best way I can describe it is it looked like a large firework,” witness Tracie Sradley told Jacksonville’s Action News. “But then there was a big ball of fire behind it and as quick as we seen it, it was gone.”

The fireball, Sradley said, was “just like the brightest, the prettiest – it was actually gorgeous, it was beautiful.”

According to the AMS, reports from across the Deep South suggest the meteor was heading northeast and indeed met its demise just west of Jacksonville — around 250 miles south of Augusta, GA, where some witness reports were filed.

Sunday’s incident came just a few days after similar reports surfaced up the East Coast, where residents of the Mid-Atlantic states on Tuesday described seeing a fireball that the AMS believes was a 500-pound meteor that was traveling at around 45,000 miles per hour before breaking up in western Pennsylvania.

Lunsford told WJXT that this time of year presents the perfect conditions for meteor viewing.

"At this time of the year in the evening sky, we have a path in the sky called the ecliptic is where the moon and the sun and the planets all follow," he said. "During those three months it's highest in the sky during the evening hours.”

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Midwestern - Eastern U.S. record breaking cold and snow as seen from space

Watts Up With That | Feb 21, 2015 |

From NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: NASA snaps picture of Eastern US in a record-breaking ‘freezer’

NASA’s Terra satellite captured this picture of snow across the eastern United States on Feb. 19 at 16:20 UTC (11:20 a.m. EST). Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

 NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image of the snow-covered eastern U.S. that looks like the states have been sitting in a freezer. In addition to the snow cover, Arctic and Siberian air masses have settled in over the Eastern U.S. triggering many record low temperatures in many states.

On Feb. 19 at 16:40 UTC (11:40 a.m. EST), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a picture of the snowy landscape. The snow cover combined with the frosty air mass made the eastern U.S. feel like the inside of freezer. The MODIS image was created at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

On the morning of Feb. 20, NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC) noted, “There were widespread subzero overnight lows Thursday night (Feb. 19) extending from Illinois to western Virginia, and numerous record lows were set. Bitterly-cold arctic air is setting numerous temperature records across the eastern U.S. and will keep temperatures well below normal on Friday (Feb. 20).”

In Baltimore, Maryland, a low temperature of 1F broke the record low for coldest morning recorded at the Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington-International Airport.

In Louisville, Kentucky, temperatures dropped to -6F, breaking the old record low of 0F, according to meteorologist Brian Goode of WAVE-TV. Meanwhile, Richmond Kentucky bottomed out at a frigid -32F.

In North Carolina, a record low temperature was set at Charlotte where the overnight temperature bottomed out at 7F breaking the old record of 13F in 1896. In Asheville, temperatures dropped to just 4F breaking the old record of 10F in 1979. Temperature records for Asheville extend back to 1876.

Several records were also broken in Georgia, according to Matt Daniel, a meteorologist at WMAZ-TV, Macon Georgia, who cited data from the National Weather Service. Daniel said that Macon set a new record low when the temperature dropped to 18F, beating the previous record of 21F set in 1958. Athens broke a new record low, too dropping to 14F and beating the old record of 18F set in 1958/1928.

NOAA’s NPC noted that “Highs on Friday (Feb. 20) will struggle to get out of the teens from the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic region. After Friday, temperatures are forecast to moderate and get closer to February averages as a storm system approaches from the west.”

Friday, February 20, 2015

4,750 square miles of Great Lakes freezes overnight; total ice cover 82%

SOTT | Feb 18, 2015 | Mark Torregrossa

© NOAA
Great Lakes ice cover continues to grow rapidly,
now surpassing the amount of ice at this time last year.
The recent arctic blasts have caused the ice cover on the Great Lakes to increase rapidly. As of Tuesday, Feb. 17, the amount of ice on the Great Lakes is more than the same date last year.

The total ice cover on the Great Lakes is now rated at 82.3 percent as of Tuesday. On the same date last year, the Great Lakes had 81.6 percent total ice cover.

The Great Lakes ice cover has grown over 5 percent in the past 24 hours. That's about 4,750 square miles of ice overnight. At that pace of ice growth, the Great Lakes would be almost totally iced over in the next four days.

The blast of arctic cold tonight through Friday will certainly help ice continue to grow.

Read more..

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Bad news for warmists: Sun has gone quiet - Weakest solar cycle in over 100 years

© spaceweather.com
Latest solar image with 
little sunspot activity
SOTT | Feb 17, 2015 | Paul Dorian

Discussion

Overview

The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky - has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. For the past 5 days, solar activity has been very low and one measure of solar activity - its X-ray output - has basically flatlined in recent days (plot below courtesy NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center). Not since cycle 14 peaked in February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots. We are currently more than six years into Solar Cycle 24 and today the sun is virtually spotless despite the fact that we are still in what is considered to be its solar maximum phase. Solar cycle 24 began after an unusually deep solar minimum that lasted from 2007 to 2009 which included more spotless days on the sun compared to any minimum in almost a century.

© NOAA/SWPC
The flatlining of solar X-ray output in recent days


Solar maximum

There was an uptick in the number of sunspots in April 2014 which produced a second peak during solar cycle 24 and it is looking increasingly likely that this will be considered the solar maximum point for this particular cycle (figure below courtesy NASA). Many solar cycles are double peaked; however, this is the first one in which the second peak in sunspot number was larger than the first peak which occurred in February 2012. Going back to 1755, there have been only a few solar cycles in the previous 23 that have had a lower number of sunspots during its maximum phase.

© NASA
Sunspot numbers for solar cycles 23 and 24 (current) with second peak


Consequences of a weak solar cycle

First, the weak solar cycle has resulted in rather benign "space weather" in recent times with generally weaker-than-normal geomagnetic storms. By all Earth-based measures of geomagnetic and geoeffective solar activity, this cycle has been extremely quiet. However, while a weak solar cycle does suggest strong solar storms will occur less often than during stronger and more active cycles, it does not rule them out entirely. In fact, the famous Carrington Event of 1859 occurred during a weak solar cycle (#10). In addition, there is some evidence that most large events such as strong solar flares and significant geomagnetic storms tend to occur in the declining phase of the solar cycle. In other words, there is still a chance for significant solar activity in the months and years ahead.

Second, it is pretty well understood that solar activity has a direct impact on temperatures at very high altitudes in a part of the Earth's atmosphere called the thermosphere. This is the biggest layer of the Earth's atmosphere which lies directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere. Thermospheric temperatures increase with altitude due to absorption of highly energetic solar radiation and are highly dependent on solar activity.

Finally, if history is a guide, it is safe to say that weak solar activity for a prolonged period of time can have a negative impact on global temperatures in the troposphere which is the bottom-most layer of Earth's atmosphere - and where we all live. There have been two notable historical periods with decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The first period is known as the "Maunder Minimum", named after the solar astronomer Edward Maunder, and it lasted from around 1645 to 1715. The second one is referred to as the "Dalton Minimum", named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, and it lasted from about 1790 to 1830. Both of these historical periods coincided with below-normal global temperatures in an era now referred to by many as the "Little Ice Age". In addition, research studies in just the past couple of decades have found a complicated relationship between solar activity, cosmic rays, and clouds on Earth. This research suggests that in times of low solar activity where solar winds are typically weak; more cosmic rays reach the Earth's atmosphere which, in turn, has been found to lead to an increase in certain types of clouds that can act to cool the Earth.

Outlook

The increasingly likely outcome for another historically weak solar cycle continues the recent downward trend in sunspot cycle strength that began over twenty years ago during solar cycle 22. If this trend continues for the next couple of cycles, then there would likely be more talk of another "grand minimum" for the sun. Some solar scientists are already predicting that the next solar cycle, #25, will be even weaker than this current one. However, it is just too early for high confidence in those predictions since some solar scientists believe that the best predictor of future solar cycle strength involves activity at the sun's poles during a solar minimum and the next solar minimum is still likely several years away.

Source: Vencore Weather

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

New Brunswick resident shares viral video of insane snowfall

© Reuters/Nathan Rochford
A man walks near a snow plow after a winter
storm hit Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
February 16, 2015. Canadian media reported that
80 cm (2.6 feet) of snow hit the
province, breaking a single storm record.
SOTT | Feb 17, 2015 | Toronto Sun

One New Brunswick man made it his mission to prove the East Coast has it worst than the rest of the country by uploading a YouTube video documenting just how much snow they've received.

It worked. You win, East Coast. We concede.

Kevin McGrath, a resident of Dieppe, probably wasn't expecting his home video showing off the amount of snow congregating around his house to hit almost 84,000 views on YouTube in two days but that's precisely what happened.

In the video, McGrath starts off by showing the "9-foot" snow bank that has built up in front of his door. He tries to dig his way out of it, but after about 30 seconds admits defeat and moves to another potential exit point.

In the garage, the situation is a little less dire, but not by much. McGrath is able to see the top half of his car and figures he and his wife can jump and squeeze their way out of the house.

With a perfect amount of dad jokes and cussing thrown in for a soundtrack, the video is a terrifying hoot.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Planet Phenomena: Shockwaves, High Winds, Cosmic Traffic, Electromagnetic Universe [Video]

Lightning inside a storm
© Courtesy SOTT Summary
SOTT | Feb 8, 2015

The following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during January 2015 - 'earth changes', extreme weather, meteor fireballs, and planetary upheaval.

Phenomenal amounts of snow were dumped in the Northeastern and Southern US, Western and Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, Western China, and Far Eastern Russia. Saudi Arabia and the Southwestern US desert were hit with snow for the third year running. The US media has apparently dropped the term 'Polar Vortex' because Arctic conditions extending all the way to the Gulf of Mexico is now 'normal'. The one place where you might expect a lot of snow this time of year - Moscow - instead enjoyed its warmest January in 100 years.

© Courtesy SOTT Summary
The Great Lakes in North America aren't as frozen over as they were this time last year, but those 'ice boulders' returned to Michigan in January, and the Niagara Falls have again partially frozen. Up to half a million people were affected by the worst flooding Southeastern Africa has seen for decades. The Balkans were flooded for the 5th time in 20 months, and barely two months on from receiving 70cm of rain in one day, Sicily was hit with a similar quantity of hail. Among the spectacular meteor fireball sightings in January were a comet fragment breaking apart over the Russian Far East, and a fireball that turned night into day in Bucharest, Romania.

'Mystery booms' continue to freak people (and animals) out across the US. We suspect that some of them are shockwaves from overhead meteor explosions, but others occur in clusters and are picked up by seismometers (despite there being no known fault-lines), so we are probably looking at general and unusual seismic activity resulting from the slow-down in the planet's rotation. This would also be responsible for all these volcanic eruptions, of which there were more spectacular ones in January. 'Earth opening up' also saw sinkholes swallow moving cars in Florida and Maryland.


As you watch this video summary of events in January, keep in mind that we had to leave out so many other unusual events because they're now part of 'the new normal'!

If you like this video, please share!

Send us your photos and videos to sott@sott.net

[...]

Thursday, January 29, 2015

The Real Age of Stupid: Talking Heads Blame Latest Snowstorm on ‘Global Warming’


21st Century Wire | Jan 28, 2015 | Patrick Henningsen

This week, we’re told that the eastern seaboard is under a ‘state of emergency’ because of a the snowfall ranging from 7.8 inches in New York to 18-22 inches in Boston as of tonight. With all the hype, you’d think it was the Little Ice Age.

Growing up in New England, I remember every winter being pretty much the same: lots of snow. Believe it or not, that’s what happens in the winter time. Sometimes it got up to 2 or 3 feet, but there was never a ‘state of emergency’. This is the gelding of America happening right before your eyes. Welcome to their brave new world of crisis management.

‘Weather experts’ started warning that the snow could reach ‘up to two feet’. Wild claims began to emerge on Monday afternoon like, “Severe weather is set to affect 60 million people”. Meaningless numbers perhaps, but their campaign worked: the public reacted with fear. Panic buying quickly spread throughout the Tri-State area, with many stores completely cleaned out of staple foods and essentials – all for a snow storm which would only last a few days.

Emergencies and crises are coming cheaper and cheaper these days. They even gave it a name, “Juno 2015″. Wonderful occult symbology there by the way, but before you laugh, mythology is exactly what we’re dealing with here…

JUNO: NYC retailers running ‘snow day sales’ today.
Some media outlets were claiming this was “The Worst Snow Storm in History”, which is not even remotely true (but hey, it sells papers so who really cares, right?). Across the region, the 2006 and 2003 Storm, Blizzard of ’97, Blizzard of ’78 and the Blizzard of ’69 were much worse, according to the National Weather Service, but not to the national media. New England caught the brunt of this week’s snow, but while media jesters were predicting an apocalypse in New York City, nothing happened.

Yet, we tuned into US broadcast networks last night and today to watch news anchors Don Lemon and Brooke Baldwin outside in their knitted caps, pointing at tiny drifts of snow as if this is something historic. CNN was pumping-up ‘state-wide travel bans’, at least in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, starting at 11:30pm. “Only emergency personnel and certain members of the media [them] will be allowed out on the roads.”

Gore’s Odyssey: Another record-breaking freeze, still cult followers cling to climate mythology

The media made a big deal about how “Violating the road ban could cost  you fines of up to $300, and could lead to arrest”. We checked, and it appears that out of all 5 nanny states declaring this faux disaster – not one fine was given, and not one arrest was made for ‘violating emergency curfews’. It was a horrible exhibition of intimidation on the part of government officials and a compliant media. Pathetic.

Smart folks will already have figured out that this over-the-top, massive show of force has nothing at all to do with snow. It’s simply another excuse for the media and government officials to band together to show the feudal masses that they’ve got it all “under control”. In other words: ‘you need us, and don’t you forget it’.

Finally, former head of FEMA, Mike Brown became frustrated on air and challenged CNN’s Don Lemon on the media’s role in creating a fake weather crisis, “There a difference between giving a weather forecast and talking about, giving our prediction and here’s what we think is going to happen, and then on the other side of the studio when the news people start hyping it up about how bad it’s going to be, ‘it’s going to be Armageddon’, and that gets everyone riled up, and then people like Governor Cuomo say, ‘I’m going to tell the MTA to shut the subways down’, yet everything I read says they didn’t shut the subways down, they were still running empty trains… If people would just  tell the f**ing truth in these situations instead of hyping it up, then we’d all be better off.”

Embarrassed, Don Lemon then went silent for few seconds, and then exited the segment.


 It seemed that CNN’s Lemon (photo above), awarded “Worst Journalist of 2014“, was in a hurry to tend to his next guest, and get down to doing what he really likes doing in front of America, which is playing with puppies, and talking about, “whether or not it’s safe for your dog to eat snow” (seriously).

The apologies started pouring in, as various meteorologists got on to Twitter to issue retractions:

“My deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public,” Gary Szatkowski of the National Weather Service. “You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn’t. Once again, I’m sorry.”

Despite inflating fears of a devastating “Snowmageddon”, Juno never actually arrived. How did the media get it so wrong? According to the weather experts, they used the wrong model”, meaning the wrong computer model. These are the very same computer models that the UN’s IPCC rely so heavily on when they make their “scientific” predictions of devastating global warming in the future.

As our readers at 21WIRE are well aware, the stupidest conspiracy theories these days are coming from two places – government and the mainstream media. As the snow began to fall on Monday, politicians were jockeying for position, taking turns making outrageous statements in order to appear relevant, and tough. Governors in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island all declared a state  of emergency. But why stop there?

The embattled NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio saw this as an opportunity to look like a Mayor, so he scrambled a press conference, decked out in his Sherpa outfit, proclaiming: ‘This will be one of the largest blizzard in the history of New York City. People must be prepared. This is not business as usual’

When de Blasio realized their was only a foot of snow, he then thrust himself back in front of the camera to claim, “We dodged a bullet!” What an idiot.

LOST: Andrew Cuomo.
New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) stood up on his podium, doing his best impression of that Aztec priest at the top of a pyramid in Mel Gibson’s Apocolypto, preaching their mythology de jour to another helpless crowd, “You’re getting a repeat pattern of these extreme weather situations, whether it’s Hurricane Sandy or seven feet of snow, and that’s part of the changing climate, I believe, that has brought this new extreme weather pattern, and it’s something we have to adjust to, it’s something that’s very costly, and it’s also something that’s very dangerous.”

It gets worse. Bill Finch, the Mayor of Bridgeport, CT, heaped praise upon ‘Reverend’ Al Sharpton for “fighting the good fight on climate change” on MSNBC (no comment on Frostie’s privilege, thank heavens). Finch said, “Thank you for your show, Reverend, you’ve been fighting the good fight on climate change, and we can see the crazy climate here, and we’d like to have a little bit more of you down in Washington.”

Not to be outdone, President Obama took to his pulpit as well, to share his own revisionist version of the Bhagavad Gita with the Indian masses, claiming, “With rising seas, melting Himalayan glaciers, more unpredictable monsoons, cyclones getting stronger… The US recognizes our part in creating this problem, so we’re leading the global effort to combat it [climate change].”

That’s what they believe, or more accurately, that’s what they feel – which seems to be all that’s needed for spouting pop science these days. So we’re all meant to agree with the Governor of New York, because, well,  7 inches of snow falls in the Big Apple. He’s backed-up by members of the media, which means we are forced to suffer disposable headlines – like this one (one of many) by Kate Sheppard of the Huffington Post, “Is Climate Change To Blame For The Northeast Snow Storm?

You might laugh, but they are serious. There is still a lot of money in green and yellow journalism.

Sheppard goes on to try and stitch together the climate change mythology and 7 inches of snow in New York, saying, “Climate change deniers are gonna deny, but there is increasing evidence that ties atmospheric warming trends to heavier snowfall events.” In order to blog her way through it, she offers this as her ‘evidence’:

“We can’t make too big a deal of every single storm and say it is caused by climate change,” climate scientist Don Wuebbles of the University of Illinois in Urbana told National Geographic on Monday. “But what we are seeing today is completely typical of what you would expect to see in a warming climate.”
That’s why we “deny” Kate. It’s because there is no evidence that this little snow flurry was caused by global warming, or its re-branded catch-all term, “climate change”, and there is no evidence that this is a new, ‘extreme weather event’ either. It’s just a foot of snow. If you are really a true believer, then you will, while you’re at it, empty your fridge of its contents and put all your food outside, and then unplug your fridge – so as to lower your carbon foot print.

In 2009, filmmaker Fanny Armstrong produced an expensive piece of political film called Age of  Stupid. It was groundbreaking at the time, because it pioneered the process of crowd funding, initially raising an impressive £450,000 ($680,000). Even more money was raised afterwards towards the production. It developed a small cult following, not least of all because of the cult-like, doomsday scenario depicted in the film which was cleverly pretending to be backed-up by “irrefutable science”.  Like Al Gore’s thoroughly debunked, but Oscar Award-winning ‘documentary’, An Inconvenient Truth, Armstrong’s Stupid is an archetypal example of a propaganda film which is meant to take place in the year 2055, in a world ravaged by the effects of global warming – rising seas, spiced up with a little nuclear war, and a no Amazon rainforest left (that’s actually a conservation issue, not a climate issue, but who cares – just throw it all in the green blender). The film was lauded by the left as a “documentary”, but at best it’s science fiction, and at worst, it’s collectivist propaganda.

Why did we pick this film for this discussion? Because of its title, “The Age of Stupid”. What is more glaringly obvious now more than ever, is how stupid climate fanatic political busy-bodies are becoming now – where every snow storm, tornado, or rainstorm is explained-away with global warming or ‘climate change’, no matter how small it is.

Some members of the media feel it’s their duty to constantly play-up the fear because (in their mind) they feel they are covering their asses if God forbid, there’s any serious of loss of life. In the Blizzard of ’78 in Massachusetts, 100 died and 4,500 were injured. What about this week’s casualties? Hardly worth a mention. Was it more dangerous back then? Not necessarily, but we are more advanced today in terms of communications and technology today – which means that we are generally safer – which means we should be panicking less, not more. 

A few weeks ago they also said that last year was the warmest ever, which was also a lie. To be accurate, one could say that 2014 was 8/10 of a degree warmer than it was 100 years ago. On its own, however, even that figure is meaningless in the wider context – past, present and future – of this planet’s temperature, which is almost completely determined by celestial factors – like incoming rocks and the sun (and not SUV’s and cows). Truth be known, Global cooling is a much bigger threat to life in our Northern Hemisphere.

If you are looking for a real demon in your midst, then look at this photograph, taken by a satellite above the US eastern seaboard:


It would be nice if all of our ‘green journalists’ would be so brave as to spend an equal amount of time and effort to let us know why they are spraying chemicals and producing artificial cloud cover over the US and parts of Europe.

Soon, you will see these same green-yellow journalists trying to tell us that, “Yes, there’s spraying happening, but it’s only ‘experimental’, in order to reflect back the sunlight, and save us all from global warming.”

No, it’s not experimental, it’s dangerous geoengineering, stupid. 

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Ocean Snow in Florida Sets Record

News4Jax | Jan 9, 2015 | Blake Mathews

© New4Jax
 [...] According to meteorologist Jason Hess, only three snowfalls have actually accumulated officially in Jacksonville in 103 years (1956, 1986 and 1989) with the greatest 24 hour accumulation of 1.9 inches in February 1899 -- before records officially began.

Thursday's snowfall was a rare phenomenon known as 'ocean effect snow.' It's the same idea as lake-effect snow except it occurs over the ocean.  The idea here is that the water is warmer than the land this time of year allowing moisture to rise and condense to form clouds and rain or snow.

When our winds shifted to the northeast, the moisture began moving towards land. Even though the surface temperatures were above freezing near the surface, the air just above the boundary layer (basically the first few hundred feet above the surface) was below freezing allowing the snowflakes to make it to the ground before melting. Voila! Snow.

It nearly didn't happen though. A powerful arctic front pushed through Florida late Wednesday powered by a mega-high pressure system over the mid west. That high drove in a lot of dry air, evidence by our dew points (measure of moisture in the air) into the teens meaning any flakes would have evaporated before reaching the ground. Through the process of evaporative cooling (wet-bulbing), our atmosphere cooled and moistened just enough to allow for the flakes to hit the ground.

Snow was last observed officially, a trace, in Jacksonville the day after Christmas in 2010 with measurable snowfall in southeast Georgia.

Read more..

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

SOTT Summary - December 2014: Extreme Weather, Earth Changes, Fireballs, High Strangeness

SOTT Media | Jan 7, 2015

© Courtesy SOTT Summary
The twelth installment in our monthly series, the following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during December 2014 - 'earth changes', extreme weather, meteor fireballs, high strangeness and planetary upheaval.

Mother Nature was apparently determined to see out 2014 with a bang, ramping up the extreme weather and Earth Changes in December. Snowstorms buried cities in Russia's Far east and Northeastern China, where a waterfall on the Yellow River partially froze. Japan was hit with record-breaking snowfall for the second time in a year, while a deep freeze in Northern India claimed at least 150 lives.

A week of non-stop electrical storms brought hail, flooding and widespread damage to Sydney, Australia, while a huge sinkhole swallowed three cars in Melbourne. Fish and whales continue to turn up dead in large numbers on coastlines and in freshwater lakes and rivers, thanks in part to increased volcanic activity, demonstrated above ground in December via eruptions in Indonesia, Mexico, Iceland, Cape Verde, Hawaii and Japan.

Drought-stricken Sao Paulo was inundated with rain, turning streets into rivers. Waterspouts appeared in Australia and the Mediterranean, a tornado hit downtown LA for the first time in decades, while another 'unseasonal' tornado outbreak in the U.S. South killed 5 and left dozens homeless. The "worst flooding in decades" hit Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Sri Lanka, where some quarter million people had to evacuate their homes.

A trail of storms pummelled the US West Coast, with landslides, mudslides, blizzards, and flash-flooding washing away homes and roads. Across the Atlantic, a so-called 'weather bomb' hit the UK and Ireland, bringing monster waves and hurricane-force winds. This was followed by a big freeze that brought blizzards to Western Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, where Malta received its first snow in over a half-century.

Spectacular meteor fireballs were filmed over Puerto Rico, Brazil, the US, Canada, Spain, and Japan. So-called 'mystery' booms shook homes in communities from the US to the UK. An incredible UFO sighting in Santiago, Chile, and the appearance of a bright glowing 'plasma light' over Lima, Peru rang in the New Year.



Buckle up for 2015; it's gonna be 'interesting'!

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Saturday, January 3, 2015

Snow squalls cause massive car pileup in New Hampshire

Mark Wilson / Getty Images / AFP
RT | Jan 2, 2015 

At least 35 cars got into a massive pileup in New Hampshire on Friday due to a fast-moving morning storm that induced snow squalls and icy slick.

The crash at Interstate 93 took place in Ashland at around 10 AM local time, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation said. According to some reports, up to 100 cars could be part of the massive crash.

The pileup happened in the northbound lanes, which were closed to traffic by the road police.




"We had a snow squall go through around 9:45 a.m. ET this morning, which typically will reduce visibility," said State Police Lieutenant Jerome Maslan.

 The police said that were reports of multiple injuries, without specifying their numbers and character. At this point, no fatalities have been reported in the chain reaction crash.

It’s not the first time Interstate 93 is being paralyzed by a snow related crash as five people were injured in a 20-vehicle pileup in 2012.

Back in 2009, a 59-vehicle crash led to a dozen people being hurt.

more photos..

Monday, December 29, 2014

French Alps hit by massive snowfall, thousands of cars stranded (PHOTOS)

A car is stuck in the snow on December 27, 2014
on the road to Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie,
central-eastern France. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)
RT | Dec 28, 2014

Massive snowfall, aggravated by strong winds and ice in the French Alps, has trapped thousands of holidaymakers, with up to 15,000 people forced to spend Saturday night in emergency accommodation centers in the Savoie region in southeastern France.

Conditions remained difficult on Sunday, a spokesman for the Savoie prefecture said. Authorities set up shelters in a dozen towns for stranded tourists in the area.

The chaos on Saturday left nearly 2,000 passengers stranded at Chambery airport in southeastern France. A spokesman for the Savoy region, which comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps between Lake Geneva in the north and Dauphiné in the south, said: "We have not estimated the number of people who spent the [Saturday] night in their cars."

According to the prefecture, a number of travelers were taken care of in emergency shelters that became almost 100 percent full. "There were 83 shelters open," Transport Minister Alain Vidal said on Sunday on Europe 1.

Snow fall as vehicles move bumper-to-bumper along the motorway near Albertville, on December 27, 2014 as they make their way into the Tarentaise valley in the heart of the French Alps, home to many of the famous French ski resorts. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)
Neighboring departments, Hautes-Alpes and Haute-Savoie, also opened several hundred beds in Gap, Briançon, Annecy and Cluses under emergency accommodation plans over Saturday and Sunday nights, Le Dauphiné Libéré reported.

Early Saturday morning, the traffic along the Tarentaise Valley, a key path into a number of popular resorts, was disrupted.

People walk at the Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France, as snow falls on December 27, 2014. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)
Thousands of cars were blocked because of the terrible weather. "We just made 130 km in 10 hours," Kevin Clavel told told Le Dauphiné Libéré, as he was stuck in his vehicle with four other passengers on A410 highway between Albertville and Chambery.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Secretary of State for Transport Alain Vidal praised "the coolness and sense of responsibility" of drivers, asking all those, who still can, to postpone their trips and to exercise "the utmost caution."

 
People put snow chains on their tires as snow falls on December 27, 2014 on the road to the Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)

"Getting to the ski stations is still pretty tricky and snow chains are mandatory. The advice is that all those who can should delay their journey," the Transport Ministry also said in a statement.

Due to heavy snow and significant wind gusts, 19 departments were placed on the country's second-highest "orange alert" in northeast France and the Northern Alps on Saturday.

In northern France, wind gusting at nearly 160 km/h led to the closure of the port of Calais, interrupting ferries to England, and traffic restrictions on the A16 motorway along the coast. In Ile-de-France, the gardens of the Château de Versailles also had to be closed to the public because of the high wind, Le Monde reported.

A man uses a snow plow to clean the road as vehicles drive past on December 27, 2014 on the road to the Les Saisies ski resort in Savoie, central-eastern France. (AFP Photo / Jean-Pierre Clatot)
Heavy snow and ice caused the greatest disruption in the east of the country. At midday on Saturday, a 27-year-old man was found dead in his car after his vehicle slid into a gorge in the Belledonne mountain range in the Isère region. The accident was "probably due to snow," the police said. The car did not have snow tires, Le Figaro reported. A female passenger in the car was slightly wounded and taken to hospital in Grenoble.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Most dangerous 5 days of snow and storms in 100 years, warns astrophysicist

© Daily Mail
Ice Age Now | Dec 9, 2014

Damaging storms, extreme cold and blizzards for UK

Tuesday, 9 Dec 2014 – “This is the weather peril warning that the BBC REFUSED to release at the end of November,” says Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist and chief forecaster for WeatherAction. “The Met Office B+I Winter Forecast is “Foolish babble from deluded charlatans and should be ignored absolutely.”

“The massive storm now heading for Britain and Ireland 9/10th bringing blizzard conditions for most parts and damaging gales or storms in all parts is essentially our top active period 5-8th extended a day or two.

This will then develop to set up the more Northerly VERY SEVERE SNOW AND BLIZZARD BLAST WITH EXTREME COLD AND GALES from Friday 12th to Tue 16th .  This was always forecast by WeatherAction (from 100days ahead with detail 27 days ahead).

“This will probably be the most extreme 5 days of snow blizzards and gales in Britain and Ireland for 100 years, even more severe than the worst events of December 2010 (which were also correctly forecast by WeatherAction).

“We are releasing this free to the public because of the serious danger.  We offered the BBC the chance to issue this free at the end of November but they refused – preferring to believe the Met Office mild December forecast which we told them would be wrong.

“THIS IS NOT THE END OF EXTREME WEATHER THIS DECEMBER OR WINTER.

On Dec 1, Piers also issued the following forecast for the United States:
  • 5-8th Ferocious Nor-Easter with sticky snow blizzards in E/NE. (Looks like he was correct.)
  • 9-11th Severe cold with ice storms likely Great Lakes, Midwest / N/NE.
  • Xmas period very cold & snowy East Great Lakes & Northeast; much milder in central and South parts
  • Mini-Ice-Age circulation in USA & world
  • The changes in circulation giving these often extreme weather patterns will be driven by changes in the Solar-Lunar factors which govern the behavior of the Jet stream and are predictable by WeatherAction’s revolutionary Solar-Lunar-Action-Technique (SLAT11) months ahead and nothing to do with CO2 changes under the failed ‘CO2-Climate Change’ ‘theory’.
See Piers’ entire December forecast for the U.S.
http://www.weatheraction.com/resource/data/wact1/docs/USA1412DEC30dprod10-40dSLAT11circ30N ov.pdf

Thanks to Piers Corbyn and Argiris Diamantis for this link